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I Love Life: Celebrating Biodiversity Through Art And Science April 13-14

Submitted by Carol A. Clark

on March 26, 2018 - 8:34am

NMHM News:

I Love Life: Celebrating Biodiversity through Art and Science is a weekend symposium at the New Mexico History Museum hosted by Biocultura Santa Fe April 13 and 14 to celebrate biological science and biodiversity with a unique ecosystem of national and local artists, scientists, educators and historians.

The main symposium is 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday, April 13 and Saturday April 14 at the NMHM.

Admission is $15 per day, $25 for both days, and free for current UNM students with ID. Advanced registration is strongly encouraged (https://goo.gl/shZVQi). Tickets may also be purchased at the NMHM front entrance.

The symposium will feature Dr. Pierre Comizzoli of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Dr. Victoria Vesna of the UCLA Art|Sci Center, MOMA featured artist Dr. Allison Kudla, Dr. Chris Kempes lead scientist in the Origin of Life Project at SFI, and Director of Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences JD Talasek.

In addition to these keynotes, roundtable discussions with local and national voices in art and science, and musical and cultural performances will bring many perspectives to the symposium.

A limited number of individuals will have the opportunity to participate in the Hox Zodiac performance luncheon by Victoria Vesna, and will explore the Hox genes- crucial for defining the body’s blueprint- through the Chinese zodiac.

An admission fee for the Hox Zodiac will be required in advance, and more information will be available at bioculturasantafe.com.

In addition to this daytime programming, from 6:30-9 p.m. Friday April 13, The Santa Fe Art Institute will feature a free pop up exhibition and Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER). This event will feature artworks and presentations from pioneering visiting and local bio-artists Vesna, Kudla and Ana MacArthur.

Sunday, April 15, a limited number of guests will take a short tour of Los Alamos, including the New Mexico Consortium, the Bradbury Museum, and New Mexico’s first DIY Bio lab, Biodidact. Advanced RSVP is required for this event by emailing madeline@bioculturasantafe.com.

Invited speakers:

Dr. Victoria Vesna​ is an Artist and Professor at the UCLA Department of Design Media arts and Director of the Art|Sci center at the School for the Arts and California Nanosystems Institute. She has investigated how communication technologies affect collective behavior and perceptions of identity shift in creation to scientific innovation. She also has long-term collaborations with composers, nanoscientists, neuroscientists, evolutionary biologists. Victoria has been essential to growing the Art|Sci Center.

Dr. Allison Kudla ​worked as an artist-in-residence and faculty member at the Srishti School of Art, Design, and Technology in Bangalore, India. She currently lives in Seattle, Washington has been working at the Institute for Systems Biology since 2012. Her work has involved looking at the universe as an operating system, finding algorithms embedded in living biological systems and processes and framing them within an artistic context.

John (JD) Talasek is the Director of Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences (CPNAS), Washington, D.C., which is focused on the exploration of the intersections between science, medicine, technology, and visual culture. Mr. Talasek is creator and moderator for a regular salon called DASER (DC Art Science Evening Rendezvous) held at the NAS and he organizes a similar salon in Austin, Texas (ATX LASER).

Dr. Pierre Comizzoli is a scientist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI). He develops new projects on gamete and gonadal tissue cryo-banking for rare and endangered species. His comparative research on fertility preservation in various wild and domestic animal species creates interesting bridges with human reproductive health and medicine.

Local presenters include:

Dr. Chris Kempes is an Omidyar Postdoctoral Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute. Chris generally focuses his work on biological architecture—which may include phenomena ranging from explicit biological morphology to metabolic and genetic network structure—as an intermediate between organism physiology and environmental conditions. Mathematical and physical theories lie at the heart of his methodologies to predict how evolution has shaped architecture and how this, in turn, forms a foundation for reliable predictions of environmental response and interaction.

Patrick Neher ​will perform a digital/acoustic musical hybrid at I Love Life. Patrick grew up in Los Alamos then traveled the world for 40 years performing and teaching. For 28 years, he was Professor of Music at the University of Arizona. He has received numerous awards for his musical compositions which focus on chamber, orchestral, and modern dance music. Patrick is a highly innovative music teacher and collaborator, and has been awarded two diplomas from the Rabbath Institute in Paris, France. Patrick Neher presently serves as the Executive Director of the Los Alamos Arts Council.

Amy Pilling ​is a permaculture designer, educator and artist living in Santa Fe. At I Love Life she will be demonstrating progress on the Life Arts Laboratory (LAL), a mobile and modular biology laboratory for artists and researchers who work with or are inspired by biological organisms and processes. LAL will reside in a pop-up trailer small enough that it can be towed into the field, or driven inside of buildings and used for research, exhibition, or education.

Ana MacArthur​’s history of working with light, light-based technologies, and biological fieldwork aims to understand key functions of light as utilized by organisms and to integrate those observations as ecological and metaphorical transformers while increasing the human/ non-human co-mingling. Based in Santa Fe but traveling for research, her cross-disciplinary practice-based research has collaboratively engaged scientists in solar innovation, photonics, behavioral biology, ceramic/ glass engineering, and materials science. She is a pioneer in dichromate (DCG) holography and co-founder of a DCG lab for 20 years located in Santa Fe, NM.